Writer Mom Life Episode 34: Indie Author Basics – Maintaining success after launch

This week we’re talking all about “the cliff” … and how to keep from falling off of it. “The cliff” is the dreaded point in time in which most authors see their book sales suddenly … plummet. Most often this is at the 30 day mark, as at that point what little boost Amazon has given you as a new release has ended. And unless you’ve built yourself a nice little flying contraption to keep your book in the air, the poor thing is going to run right off that edge and plummet to its doom.

Okay, okay, maybe it’s not all that grim. But we authors like drama, so I digress…

In this longer tips episode, we discuss book “maintenance”, which is … well, frankly, more advertising.  Aka, the flying contraption that will keep your book afloat even long after it’s initial launch! But don’t despair! This doesn’t have to be overly complicated, either.

Some of the things we talk about in this episode are:

• Free vs paid advertising, and examples of each
• The importance of an experimental mindset
• The importance of author groups in helping you avoid wasting your money on inefficient advertising (of course we highly recommend our own group!)
• Which kind of advertising is more likely to lead to sales spikes vs a steady stream of income
• When you should NOT use paid advertising
• What advertising/swaps to arrange monthly to keep that income steady!
• Why it’s important to occasionally refresh your categories and keywords!

Resource Links!

• KDP Rocket
• BookFunnel
• Instafreebie (now Prolific Works apparently…)
• MyBookCave
• Hidden Amazon categories and the keywords that will get you into them!
• Writer Mom Life Facebook group
• Author Newsletter Share and Swap (all genres)
• SFF Newsletter Swaps  (scifi and fantasy only, NL swaps only)
• SFF Book Bonanza – Author Promotions (scifi and fantasy only, various promo opportunities)
• Dream Team Network – paid group, for newsletter swaps
• Epic Fantasy > Romantic Authors – J. R.’s group, for support of authors of romantic fantasy and cross promotions/newsletter swaps, etc
• Just do a search in Facebook for “[your genre] authors” and you’ll find groups that are great for swapping with!